NASLite Network Attached Storage

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 5:48 am 
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Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2011 5:45 am
Posts: 8
Location: Verona, Italy
Hello World! :mrgreen:

I'm a new Naslite user from Italy and I want to share with you my nas solution...

I bought an Atom based nas, the Acer Easystore H340 with specifications as follow:

- Intel Atom 230 processor
- 2 Gbyte of DDR2 ram
- 256 Mbyte of buit-in usb drive (the Naslite disk)
- 4 Sata bays (hot-swappable)
- 5 Usb ports (1 in the front, 4 in the back)
- 1 e-sata port (great to connect one e-sata array of disk to expand the storage)
- Ethernet Gigabit vith Marvell chipset

I equipped it with 4 WD 2TByte sata drives...

It is incredible, far better than the crappy (for me) Microsoft WHS pre-installed from Acer... the transfer speed through ethernet is about 5-10% faster (I'm using an old-but-reliable Linksys WRT54G v.6 router with DD-WRT firmware) and I feel it more reliable

There are only two disadvantages:
- the hard disk lights aren't blinking but it is a driver problem: Naslite doesnt' include the driver needed and I cannot install the Ubuntu one (it isn't a ServerElements fault)
- when I turn off the system by the console the system shuts down but afer 4 seconds it turns on... I think is an Acer ACPI bios problem and I'll try to hack the bios


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PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 9:30 am 
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Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2005 7:50 am
Posts: 149
Are you still liking your system? What kind of transfer rates are you getting? As I mentioned in another post I am building a new system and everyone here is giving me good ideas. I like the idea of a low power small system. I have been using a large tower system. My friend lent me a Synology Disk station while I build my new Naslite system. Anyone used one, they are pretty slick. The software has lots of options and the GUI looks very good.


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 8:04 am 
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Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2011 5:45 am
Posts: 8
Location: Verona, Italy
The Easystore is enought fast to fullfill my requests.... when I transfer files between my pc and my nas It reaches 30 Mbyte/sec (via gigabit network) but I don't know what you are looking for... how may pc will be connected to the nas?

My nas is connected by a TP-Link router to
2 pc (Acer X270 via cable, Sony Vaio via wireless)
1 NetworkedMediaTank (eGreat M31A/C)
1 DigitalTV Receiver (ZoltarTV)

My next test will be connecting a storage e-sata tower (8 or 16 drivers) to the e-sata port of my nas... I need more space and I hope it will work! :mrgreen:


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PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 9:20 pm 
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Joined: Fri Feb 25, 2005 11:50 pm
Posts: 139
Edoardo wrote:
Hello World! :mrgreen:

I'm a new Naslite user from Italy and I want to share with you my nas solution...

I bought an Atom based nas, the Acer Easystore H340 with specifications as follow:

- Intel Atom 230 processor
- 2 Gbyte of DDR2 ram
- 256 Mbyte of buit-in usb drive (the Naslite disk)
- 4 Sata bays (hot-swappable)
- 5 Usb ports (1 in the front, 4 in the back)
- 1 e-sata port (great to connect one e-sata array of disk to expand the storage)
- Ethernet Gigabit vith Marvell chipset

I equipped it with 4 WD 2TByte sata drives...

It is incredible, far better than the crappy (for me) Microsoft WHS pre-installed from Acer... the transfer speed through ethernet is about 5-10% faster (I'm using an old-but-reliable Linksys WRT54G v.6 router with DD-WRT firmware) and I feel it more reliable

There are only two disadvantages:
- the hard disk lights aren't blinking but it is a driver problem: Naslite doesnt' include the driver needed and I cannot install the Ubuntu one (it isn't a ServerElements fault)
- when I turn off the system by the console the system shuts down but afer 4 seconds it turns on... I think is an Acer ACPI bios problem and I'll try to hack the bios



Thanks for the tip. It was much appreciated.

Bought an Easystore H342 and that diagnostic cable thinking I could set the unit up to just boot a USB stick (my default standard anyway). Unfortunately, the bios on this thing is so worthless...none of the settings will hold - even after you remove the bios lockdown jumper. Ended up burning NASLite to the onboard USB like you did (wiping whs), then finally overwriting the WHS boot drive itself (stupid board *always* trys to boot from disk). It was either that - or try to hunt down an industrial Sata to CF adapter (hard to find if not mail ordered).

Drive lights don't work on this one either, but it does shut down cleanly. Works well.


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PostPosted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 2:20 pm 
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Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2011 5:45 am
Posts: 8
Location: Verona, Italy
artdoyle wrote:
Thanks for the tip. It was much appreciated.

Bought an Easystore H342 and that diagnostic cable thinking I could set the unit up to just boot a USB stick (my default standard anyway). Unfortunately, the bios on this thing is so worthless...none of the settings will hold - even after you remove the bios lockdown jumper. Ended up burning NASLite to the onboard USB like you did (wiping whs), then finally overwriting the WHS boot drive itself (stupid board *always* trys to boot from disk). It was either that - or try to hunt down an industrial Sata to CF adapter (hard to find if not mail ordered).

Drive lights don't work on this one either, but it does shut down cleanly. Works well.


Hi artdoyle
if you want to maximize the disks speed of your Nas (but only if you have 4k sector hdds like my WG Greens) you must allign the ext3 partitions. To be honest I did it on a debian machine and than I put the disks inside my nas. I had an huge improvement!

You must not remove the service mode pin or you will lose the bios settings and the nas will boot from the first HDD!

(I don't know if you did the backup of the content of the internal usb... I have it so if you need let me know and I can email it to you!)

Cheers!


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PostPosted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 5:46 pm 
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Joined: Fri Feb 25, 2005 11:50 pm
Posts: 139
Edoardo wrote:
artdoyle wrote:
Thanks for the tip. It was much appreciated.

Bought an Easystore H342 and that diagnostic cable thinking I could set the unit up to just boot a USB stick (my default standard anyway). Unfortunately, the bios on this thing is so worthless...none of the settings will hold - even after you remove the bios lockdown jumper. Ended up burning NASLite to the onboard USB like you did (wiping whs), then finally overwriting the WHS boot drive itself (stupid board *always* trys to boot from disk). It was either that - or try to hunt down an industrial Sata to CF adapter (hard to find if not mail ordered).

Drive lights don't work on this one either, but it does shut down cleanly. Works well.


Hi artdoyle
if you want to maximize the disks speed of your Nas (but only if you have 4k sector hdds like my WG Greens) you must allign the ext3 partitions. To be honest I did it on a debian machine and than I put the disks inside my nas. I had an huge improvement!

You must not remove the service mode pin or you will lose the bios settings and the nas will boot from the first HDD!

(I don't know if you did the backup of the content of the internal usb... I have it so if you need let me know and I can email it to you!)

Cheers!


I just purchased a new Naslite build which supports advanced format. Actually 2ea. Pretty easy.

(Shrugging) Don't plan to update my 7 other Naslites :) Always perform QC on new drives before installation anyway, so I just bought a hotswap drive cage. Preconditioning is now a real snoozer.

Believe I did image that Windows Server, but don't plan to use it. Have you been reading about the troubles owners are having with file WHS file corruption? No thanks! Want our servers to be "ignorable" after setup. No surprises. "Keep it simple stupid" holds sway here....

Thanks for your onboard USB tip!


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 4:46 pm 
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Joined: Thu Mar 09, 2006 2:55 pm
Posts: 26
Hey folks - couple of questions here...

1) So not to be a blockhead, but how does this thing fit into the NL universe? Is one able to blow away the existing OS on this thing and then install NL? I searched for docs on this thing but could not find any operational details. If this is indeed the case, then I get why we'd want them.

2) Looks like it has been discontinued - can anyone confirm?

Thanks.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 3:17 pm 
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Joined: Fri Feb 25, 2005 11:50 pm
Posts: 139
Quote:
Hey folks - couple of questions here...

1) So not to be a blockhead, but how does this thing fit into the NL universe? Is one able to blow away the existing OS on this thing and then install NL? I searched for docs on this thing but could not find any operational details. If this is indeed the case, then I get why we'd want them.

2) Looks like it has been discontinued - can anyone confirm?

Thanks.


Sorry. Was away for awhile :)

Yeah it's discontinued. Attraction (at least for me) was its silence and low power consumption. Believe it's better than anything I could build, even using an atom Mini-ITX critter. Just elegantly simple and purpose built. Very compact and runs cool - even when fully populated. 64bit dual atom moves files quickly.....

Have tried to buy more....but they now sell at a premium vs their blowout price. So they can keep them. Not worth it at current prices IMO.

Ours did have a funky bios which required battling to prevent it from changing settings on its own. That's not good for anything run headless. Don't remember what I did to fix it.


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